Acting head groundsman Julian Gouldthorpe has emerged as the unsung hero of Torquay United's 4-2 Boxing Day win over Truro City - after giving up his Christmas Day to make sure that the game went ahead.

Gouldthorpe worked for nine hours at Plainmoor on Tuesday in an effort to guarantee that the under-pressure pitch was fit to host the White Tigers, who have been ground-sharing this season.

The match duly attracted a bumper 3,863 gate, with the table-topping Gulls reeling off their seventh successive league win and stretching their unbeaten run under manager Gary Johnson to 13 games.

Gouldthorpe, who was assistant to recently departed head groundsman Chris Ralph, had seen last Saturday's Truro-v-Wealdstone match postponed, City's second Plainmoor match to be called off this season.

"Julian put in a fantastic shift on Christmas Day," said managing director George Edwards, "so well done to him.

"It showed just how dedicated he and all our staff are."

Gouldthorpe added: "We managed to get a bit of dry weather at the right time, at last, which did help us.

"Boxing Day is always an important home game, but I was hopeful that we would be OK, especially after getting a light mower on it.